25 best college football coaches never to win a national title
- Head Coaching Record: 153-62-5 at East Carolina 1974-79, Wyoming 1980, and Auburn 1981-92
- Closest He Came to Winning a National Championship: 1983; 11-1 Sugar Bowl Champions, No. 3 final ranking
- Notable: 1976 Southern Conference Champions, Four SEC Championships (1983, 1987, 1988), College Football Hall of Fame (2005)
Pat Dye was an All-American at Georgia in 1959 that played two seasons of professional football before eventually returning to the college game as an assistant coach for Bear Bryant at Alabama. Dye coached linebackers for Bryant from 1965-1973, in which the Crimson Tide won national champions in his first and last seasons, before he left to become the head coach at East Carolina. He compiled a 48-18-1 record and won one Southern Conference championship in six seasons with the Pirates before leaving for Wyoming in 1980.
After a 6-5 season with the Cowboys, Dye was hired as the head coach at Auburn, where he would have an opportunity to play his mentor twice before Bryant retired in 1982 – including a 23-22 Auburn victory in Bryant’s final regular season game. Dye won 99 games across 12 seasons with the Tigers, and led Auburn to the SEC Championship in 1983, 1987 and 1988.
The 1983 campaign was the closest Dye ever got to a national championship as a head coach. Auburn finished the season 11-1, a perfect 6-0 against SEC opponents, with only an early season loss to Texas standing between the Tigers and a national title. Dye led the Tigers to top ten final rankings in four straight seasons from 1986-1989, but left Auburn following back-to-back five-win seasons in 1991 and 1992 and an NCAA scandal that led to heavy sanctions against the football program.
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